Fox: Team Holds Tebow ‘in High Regard’

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Perhaps the Dove Valley chef is serving up a side dish of rumor to go along with chicken, shrimp and steaks. Or maybe he or she is spilling the beans?

Either way, the cook, or anyone else outside the Broncos’ high-ranking sphere of influence, could be a potential unnamed source for reporter Michael Silver’s assertion on a Yahoo! sports article that Tim Tebow was the fourth-best quarterback at training camp.

The source was someone whom Silver termed a “highly knowledgeable member of the organization.” It was a perspective Fox dismissed.

“I’d say that nobody in this building that’s in this decision-making process — coach, official, I don’t know, maybe they heard it from the cook, I’m not sure — (made those statements),” Fox said.

“If you read it correctly, I don’t think that (the story) said anybody in the organization. It just said, “knowledgeable football person.” That could be a wide range.

“Like I said, it could have been the chef. He sees the players every day. That’s what I’d say.”

That’s not to insinuate that the person behind the Broncos’ meals is involved. But it does illustrate the degree to which the speculation regarding Tim Tebow’s future has spun beyond anyone’s control.

Tebow won’t start Week 1, barring injury to Kyle Orton between now and then. That doesn’t mean the organization is disappointed with where the second-year quarterback’s development stands.

“We hold Tim in high regard,” Fox said. I think he’s got a bright future in this game. He’s playing maybe the hardest position I know in the NFL there is to play, and maybe in all of sport.

“He’s progressing fine. He’ll get more opportunities in games as we go. Those are great opportunities.”

More may be coming, Fox implied. Tebow and Brady Quinn have split the second-team repetitions in practice this week — just as they have since training camp began — but the head coach would like to see Tebow fire more passes during the two games over the next eight days.

“Kyle’s had 19 passes, Brady’s had 30 and Tim’s had nine. So in fairness to Tim, we need to get that total up,” Fox said. “Whether it happens this week or next week, those game experiences are critical in anybody’s development, no matter what position.”

Meanwhile, fourth-teamer Adam Weber continues his work on the practice field. Given that the starters will play into the third quarter Saturday in Seattle, it’s highly unlikely he’ll see any action this weekend. Next Thursday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals could belong to Quinn and Tebow if the Broncos decide to use that game to decide their second-team quarterback.

In other words, while a “highly knowledgeable member of the organization” might see Weber as the third-best quarterback, every day of practice has offered evidence that Tebow remains, at worst, a co-No. 2 with Quinn.

But rumors continue to make a mess of the Broncos’ kitchen. The chef might be advised to clean it.

About Andrew Mason

Andrew Mason has covered the NFL since 1999, when he worked as an editor on NFL.com when the site was managed by ESPN.com. He worked six seasons (2002-07) covering the Broncos on their official website and two (2008-09) on the Panthers' site. He began MaxDenver.com in 2010 and now contributes to CBSSports.com, The Sporting News and The New York Times.